10 Wonderful Facts On William Shatner

1. In his seven decades of television, Shatner became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise, in the Star Trek franchise. He has written a series of books chronicling his experiences playing Captain Kirk and being a part of Star Trek, and has co-written several novels set in the Star Trek universe.

2. He has written a series of science fiction novels called TekWar, which were adapted for television.

3. Shatner also appeared in the NBC series, 3rd Rock from the Sun in seasons 4 and 5 as the role of the “Big Giant Head” whom the alien characters of the Series reported to.

4. From 2004 until 2008, he starred as attorney Denny Crane in the final season of the legal drama The Practice and its spinoff series Boston Legal, a role that earned him two Emmy Awards.

5. Shatner was born on March 22, 1931, in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the son of Anne and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer.

6. After graduating from McGill University in 1952, Shatner became the business manager for the Mountain Playhouse in Montreal before joining the Canadian National Repertory Theatre in Ottawa, where he trained as a classical Shakespearean actor. Shatner began performing at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, beginning in 1954.

7. In 1954, he was cast as Ranger Bob on The Canadian Howdy Doody Show. Shatner was an understudy to Christopher Plummer; the two would later appear as adversaries in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

8. Shatner had a leading role in an Alfred Hitchcock Presents third-season episode titled “The Glass Eye”, one of his first appearances on American television.

9. In 1959, he received good reviews when he played the role of Lomax in the Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong.

10. In 1961, he starred in the Broadway play A Shot in the Dark with Julie Harris and directed by Harold Clurman.